Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s run on The Ultimates, Marvel’s
reboot version of The Avengers, is often called “widescreen,” and compared to
big budget action films. So it makes sense that their first storyline,
Super-Human, would end up the basis of a movie. Of course with live action
budgets being what they are, and the action being the level it is in the story,
it made sense to make the thing a cartoon. Now the trailer for the film –
called Ultimate Avengers, and hitting DVD this February – is officially out,
and I wish it had made sense to make it a good cartoon. (Apparently the trailer was included in the secret section of the Fantastic Four DVD, but it hasn’t shown up on the web yet, at least not that I could find)
Granted, you can’t see much on the tiny Flash trailer that’s
on the official site – http://www.ultimateavengers.com/
– but what is on display is shitty animation drawn in a completely generic
style. It’s too bad, because it looks like they used the comic as a storyboard –
some scenes are lifted straight out, like Giant Man holding up a building, and
the Hulk being slammed into Grand Central Station – but they got rid of
anything that made Hitch’s art so beautiful and distinctive.
Usually I’m not all about the rating. I don’t think an R
rating denotes any more quality than a PG, but being familiar with the source
material, the PG-13 rating mentioned at the official site makes me think that
if the art is being bowdlerized, at
least the story will retain it’s nastier elements. And The Ultimates is
wonderful for it’s nastier elements.
You can pre-order Ultimate Avengers through CHUD by clicking here. At this time it’s only 14 bucks, not a bad price.